Black and Blue
by Aryana NightAngel
Summary: On that fateful night in Godric's Hollow, Lily Potter escaped with her infant son. Far away, Draco Malfoy would lay orphaned in his crib. The two boys begin as unlikely friends, and each becomes the only thing that can save the other.
1. Blissful Ignorance

_**(AN: OMG HERE IS THE ACTUAL SUMMARY**_**: **_**On that fateful night in Godric's Hollow, Lily Potter escaped with her infant son, who would be raised for his place in the prophesy. Far away, Draco Malfoy would lay orphaned in his crib, to be raised by a cruel Uncle that wants his fortune. The two begin as unlikely friends, and each becomes the only thing that can save the other.**_**) (I spent forever shortening that to make it fit, which I hated passionately, just so you know. Okay, on to the story now.)**

_Chapter One: Blissful Ignorance_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)**

I bounced on the balls of my feet, fidgeting with the sleeves of my robes as I watched my mum scanning the rows of books with a deeply involved look on her face. And since my mother _loved _books, I knew we'd be here even longer than we already had. We had already gotten my school books, and I was still waiting on her. I was never much on books, although I could usually manage to read one when I absolutely _had _to sit still, which really wasn't that often.

"You are such an impatient thing," Mum laughed, glancing at me and rolling her eyes. "Here, go get your robes," she said, pulling a small pouch of galleons out of her pocket and holding them out to me. I had the pouch and was halfway to the door when she yelled after me to go straight to the robe shop and back, no detours. I decided that I'd gotten far enough away that I could pretend later that I hadn't heard her.

I stopped outside the robe shop, considering whether or not I ought to actually go ahead and get the robes before I went to Quality Quidditch Supplies and possibly Sugar Plumb Confectionary. I peered through the window and saw a boy that looked about my age stepping up on a stool to be sized, and decided that I might as well go on in while at least there was someone to talk to and I didn't have to occupy myself with watching out the window. That was severely unentertaining.

"Hogwarts?" Madam Malkin asked me when I stepped inside. I nodded, and looked up at the boy being sized. He was about my size, which meant he was either younger than me or also small for his age. His hair was silvery blonde, and I wondered if he had perhaps bleached it. I knew a Muggle girl that did that to her hair, although I could scarcely understand _why_.

"Hi. My name's Harry. Are you starting Hogwarts this year as well?" I asked him curiously as another woman came out of the back of the shop and ordered me up onto another stool to be sized.

"Oh. Hello. And yes," he said, blinking at me in surprise. His eyes were pale gray, and kind of silvery like his hair. Which meant his hair was probably like that naturally. His skin was pale, too, like he wasn't outside much. I doubted we had much in common then, since I couldn't stand to be locked up in a house, but I was still sort of entertained by the slightly frightened look on his face as I studied him.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Draco," he said uncomfortably, and I frowned, trying to remember why I should know that name. He sighed tiredly and looked away from me.

"You ride a broom much?" I asked him, and he looked back at me in surprise, like he hadn't expected me to say anything else to him. And I might not have if I'd remember where I'd heard his name before.

"Er…what?" he said, looking confused.

"I was just wondering, since you look like you could use some sun," I said jovially, and he smiled in a way that was more sad than happy.

"I'm not allowed-I mean, I just don't spend a lot of time outside," he said with a self-depreciating quirk of his lips. I stared at him for a second, horrified by the idea of being forced to stay inside all day.

"Can you ride a broom?" I asked in morbid fascination.

"I've never tried," he admitted.

"That's terrible. Do you want me to teach you, when we get to Hogwarts?" I offered, feeling extremely charitable toward this poor little prisoner boy.

He looked at me, eyes wide and full of a kind of desperate hope that made me feel kind of sad for some reason. "If-I mean, you would-I mean _yes_," he said haltingly, nodding emphatically and earning a glare from Madam Malkin that he didn't notice.

"Okay. I guess we'll have to use school brooms, since first years aren't allowed to have their own brooms. I hate that rule. And we can't have dogs at Hogwarts, either. Just nasty old cats. I hate cats," I told him, and he smiled and nodded, his head tilted slightly to the side as he listened to me. "Which do you prefer? Or do you have a rat instead?" I asked him.

"I've never had a pet, but I'm getting an owl today," he told me, his face suddenly bright.

"I have a snowy owl named Hedwig," I told him, and he smiled, looking wistful. "What kind of owl are you going to get?" I asked him.

"I don't know yet," he said, and I got the impression that he'd only just stopped himself from shrugging. "That doesn't matter very much to me."

"You're all done," the woman told Draco, pulling the robes off of him and beginning to pack them into a box, which went into a bag. I watched him pay for it, but he stopped just short of leaving and turned around to wave shyly at me.

"See you, Draco," I said, and he smiled as he left. I was still watching him walk by outside the window when the woman told me my robes were done. I paid for them quickly and then hurried out of the shop. I bounced on the balls of my feet, full of nervous energy and a wild desire to run after the boy I'd just met and follow him around until my mum found me.

"Hey, Draco, wait up!" I called without further thought, and he froze and turned around, the shocked look on his face from before. "Sorry," I laughed as I ran and caught up with him. "I've got time to kill, since my mum's going to be in the bookshop forever, I just know she is. Care if I tag along with you for a bit?" I asked rapidly.

He blinked a couple of times and then nodded, a small smile on his face. "I'm just going to get my wand," he said.

"Brilliant. I have some galleons left over, and I haven't gotten mine yet, either. We can go do it together," I said, grinning and starting toward Ollivander's. Draco jogged a couple of steps to catch up with me, and then fell into step beside me.

We were laughing when we left the shop, helpless little giggles that we tried to muffle with our hands. Me breaking half the things in the shop while trying to find a proper wand, paired with the owlish little man behind the counter mumbling about how strange I was, had for some reason become extremely amusing as we were taking our leave.

"That was so bizarre," Draco said once we could both breathe again.

"Did you see the way he looked at me? Mad, for sure," I said, and Draco grinned. "But at least we got our wands. What do you have left to get?" I asked.

"Um…I need my owl," he said. "I left it for last," he added as he gingerly placed his wand into the satchel he wore that I realized now must be much larger on the inside than on the outside, to have all his things in it already.

"Excellent," I declared, practically bouncing down the sidewalk toward the pet shop.

"How do you hold all that energy inside yourself?" Draco asked happily as he hurried to catch up with me. "How do you not explode?"

"Oh, I don't. It's spilling over all the time. You've gotten it all over your shoes," I

I informed him, and he laughed. I grinned; I felt a bit of odd pride when I made him laugh. He looked like he didn't do it very often. We spent a lot of time in the pet shop, talking to owls and petting cats until Draco discovered a pale barn owl with dark eyes and a quiet temperament.

"What do you think of the name Archimedes?" he asked as we left the shop, glancing shyly at me, looking for approval. I grinned, and his gaze went back to the owl he was carrying.

"Like the philosopher?" I asked, and he nodded, smiling brightly. "You read a lot, right?" He blinked and nodded again. "I thought so. That's excellent. I'll teach you to fly, and you'll help me pass History of Magic," I announced.

"Okay," he agreed quietly, his smile soft and happy.

"I say we seal the deal with ice cream," I decided aloud.

"Ice cream?" he repeated in surprise.

"Sherbet. Frozen yogurt. Whatever flies your broom. I've still got some sickles left over from the money Mum gave me for my robes, so I'll buy. Get whatever you want," I said generously, throwing my arm around his shoulders and dragging him into Forchesco's ice cream shop.

No one else was at the shop, except for a few people sitting at the picnic tables outside of it, so I bounced directly up to the counter. The elderly man, probably Mr. Forchesco, smiled warmly at me. "Can I get something for you boys?" he asked us.

"I would like two scoops of treacle pecan ice cream in a chocolate cone," I told him at once. Draco wasn't so quick, spending an endless moment staring at the wall of different flavors. "Can I have a scoop of the raspberry?" he asked, and I felt like it was directed more at me than Forchesco.

I grinned and nodded, but the old man frowned thoughtfully as he scooped our ice cream and I paid for it. I ignored him and led Draco out to the bench in front of the store where we ate our treats in the sunshine and watched the people pass on the sidewalk.

"I have to be in Slytherin," he told me after a stretch of comfortable silence. "Does that matter?" he asked in a quieter voice, and I knew at once that he'd avoided mentioning it for fear of driving me off, as he'd had a three-in-four chance of doing.

"Nah. I'm not heading anywhere in particular, not worried much about it. Mum wants me to be in Gryffindor, like she and my dad were," I told him, and he nodded as if he kind of figured that, taking a bite of his ice-cream cone. "But like I said, it won't matter either way to me," I said, and we went back to eating our ice-cream in silence.

"I should go. Uncle Silas will be expecting me home soon," he said after I'd finished my ice-cream; he'd had less and had been done for a little while. "I don't want to get in trouble."

"Okay, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express then?" I asked as he stood up.

"Yeah," he nodded, smiling his little sad smile. "Thanks for the ice-cream." I nodded, and he turned and walked into the crowd.

"I figured I'd find you here. Who's your friend?" Mum asked, walking up beside the bench from the direction opposite where Draco had gone.

"Draco. I met him in the robe shop," I said, standing up and gathering my bags from Madam Malkin's and Olivander's shops.

"Draco Malfoy," Mom muttered, frowning after him. And then I realized why his name had sounded familiar. It was because his father had been a Death Eater, who'd been with Voldemort then night they had come to kill me. His father had cast the killing curse that killed mine, who in turn had somehow returned the favor. And during this altercation, my mother had scaled the latticework on the side of the house, ran down the block to the home of Berthilda Bagshot, and flooed to safety.

And without either of us realizing who the other was, we had been perfectly happy as friends.

**(AN: okay, so a bit of explanation for this story. I love fanfictions where Harry is hurt and innocent and Draco is spoiled and exciting, and they become friends and eventually fall in love. I've read several. So I decided to reverse their rolls in a bid for originality. And also because I love my completely and totally out of character Draco. He needs to be cuddled. So leave reviews and tell me what you think :) please)**

**(AN2: oh, and like in my story A Twist of Fate, the point of view is going to hop around a little. Just between Harry and Draco this time. I'm going to switch every chapter, in an actual pattern this time, so the next chapter is going to be from Draco's point of view. ****Enjoy!)**

**(AN3: in case you couldn't tell that it's a bit suckish, I spent forever trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to name this story. Nothing was coming to me. So I picked a song off of the playlist I made to listen to while I write this story and made its title the title of my story right before I posted this story. It's semi-appropriate. Black and Blue by Counting Crows.)**


	2. Lack of Loss

_Chapter Two: Lack of Loss_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Draco Malfoy)**

I had to tell him. If he still didn't know, I _had_ to tell him who I was. My desperate hope was that someone had told him, so he would just ignore me, and I could have a single day of being friends without mixing it up with the moment he realized why he would never be my friend.

I could see him on the platform from my seat on the train, being fussed over by his mother. I'd seen them together as I was leaving Diagon Alley, and had recognized her then as Lily Potter. _Auror _Lily Potter. Surely, she had told him who my father was, if she'd seen me with him. I was terrified that she hadn't, and I would have to watch Harry's open smile turn into something hateful.

I sat back in my seat, wrapping my arms around myself and staring at the empty seat across from me. The name Malfoy had become a curse after my father had died. The Death Eaters scorned us, because my father's folly had allowed Harry Potter to escape. And everyone else hated us for our undeniable affiliation with the Death Eaters.

After my father's death, my mother had fallen ill. I had a few vague memories of her before she'd died, and none of my father. After that, my father's brother, Uncle Silas, had moved in to take control of the Malfoy estate, as the heir to the fortune until I was of age.

Lost in thought, I hadn't seen Harry leave his mother's side and get on the train, so I wasn't expecting it when he appeared in the doorway to my otherwise empty train compartment. "Hey Draco," he said, dragging his trunk in after him and flopping into the seat beside me.

He was already dressed in his school robes, like I was; generally, only the students who had to pass through the Muggle part of London to get to the station ever needed to change into their robes. "I didn't think she was ever going to stop going over the school rules and actually let me leave," he laughed, and I felt myself growing pale. He didn't know. It was impossible for him to know and still be treating me like his friend.

"Harry, you…you should sit somewhere else," I whispered, and he frowned at me. "I…my name is Draco Malfoy." I said, looking down at my hands and hoping he would leave without shouting.

"I know," he replied, and I looked back up at him to see a small smile and a quirked eyebrow. "It was too late when Mum told me; I already liked you," he informed me, his emerald eyes bright and guileless. "So if you don't mind, I still want to be friends."

I stared at him, hardly daring to believe that he was sincere, that this wasn't a cruel joke. I found myself nodding slowly, an unimaginable happiness bursting open inside me, and I laughed. It was hysterical laughter, sounding high and insane before it dissolved into tears. "I guess that means okay," Harry murmured, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and leaning his head against mine.

I'd thought I was ready to be all alone at school, to move carefully through the students to avoid attention, to avoid the persecution that I knew would come from every side. But it would be so much easier to bear with Harry, but then how could I ask him to bear it with me? "You…can't," I hiccupped against his shoulder. "You won't have any other friends. It's not fair. Everyone should want to be your friend. It's not…it's not fair," I whispered.

"Don't worry about me. Those who matter won't mind, and those who mind don't matter," he said, giving my shoulders a final squeeze before he sat back. I felt the loss of his warmth keenly, and blushed when I looked up at him again. "I don't have many friends, anyway. I have a natural tendency to not like people," he joked, and I knew he must be lying to make me feel better. But I smiled anyway and let him.

"Anything from the cart, dears?" an elderly lady pushing a cart full of sweets asked us. I quickly wiped my face on my sleeve, looking away out the window. I didn't have any money, anyway.

"Yeah, I think we need some," Harry said, digging in the pockets of his robes. "What do you like, Draco?" he asked me, and I looked back at him in surprise.

"Uncle doesn't give me spending money," I replied quietly.

Harry just grinned, ruffling my hair, which I found a bit baffling in its simple affection. "I didn't ask if you had any money. Now what do you want from the cart?" he asked me. I remembered that he had bought ice-cream for me before, too, and felt myself blush with shame.

"Nothing," I said quietly, looking back out the window.

"Tell me or I'm buying you one of everything," he threatened with a grin.

"You-what-why would you…?" I sputtered, and then I saw the determined glint in his bright eyes. "Peppermint toads," I answered after just a moment, and Harry grinned in triumph.

"Alright, twenty peppermint toads," he said, and I stared in horror. "Twenty chocolate frogs. Two caldron cakes, two pumpkin pasties, two of the licorice wands, and…two bottles of butterbeer," he said rapidly, dumping a small handful of galleons into the hand of the lady and picking his chosen sweets off the cart.

"You're a sweet boy," she told Harry, giving him an extra caldron cake before she moved on.

"Come on, sit down here with me," he beckoned, sitting down cross-legged in the floor with his back to the closed sliding glass door and dumping the pile of sweets into the floor in front of him.

I sank slowly into the floor, hardly knowing what to do with myself as I watched him unwrap a licorice wand and begin to eat it. "Help yourself. I got it for both of us," he told me, and when he grinned, his teeth were black. I couldn't help laughing.

"You shouldn't keep doing that," I said, fiddling with the packaging of an unopened peppermint toad. They were wonderful little sweets, white chocolate laced with red ribbons of peppermint flavor running through them, and they had the same enchantment on them as chocolate frogs, as well as an included wizard card.

"Doing what?" he asked innocently.

"Buying me things because I don't have any money," I said sullenly.

"Hey, you've got plenty of money. You just don't have access to it yet. You can pay me back when we're seventeen," he informed me, and I found it perfectly comforting.

"Don't think I won't; you're getting back every knut," I said, and he smiled. At ease now, knowing that it was only borrowed and not taken, I opened my peppermint toad and popped it into my mouth before it could escape. The charm broke when I bit down, and it turned back into regular candy. It was wonderful; I rarely got sweets.

"You got Saint Madigan Mungo," Harry said, picking up the card I had dropped in favor of the toad. "It says she founded St. Mungo's, and she was also Headmistress of Hogwarts at one point. And a senior member of the Wazingamot."

"Senior member? Aren't they all ancient?" I asked, and Harry laughed.

"Maybe she was a little more ancient than the rest of them," he suggested, opening one of the chocolate frogs. "I got Dumbledore," he announced, holding his frog by one of its feet as he read the card. "Order of Merlin First Class. Current Headmaster of Hogwarts. Seven uses of dragon blood. Oh, and it says he's also known for his work in alchemy with Nicholas Flamel. Did you know that?" he asked.

I nodded, recalling a book I'd read about Flamel. "He developed the Philosopher's Stone, which allows him to live for an indefinite amount of time. Him and his wife Perenelle live somewhere in France, I believe. The book mentioned his work with Dumbledore," I explained.

"We are going to _ace _History of Magic," he said in awe, and I felt suddenly proud of all the knowledge I'd gained from the endless hours of reading that my life had generally consisted of thus far.

"And every other class, of course," I sniffed, and he grinned happily. Just then, the leg of his chocolate frog broke off and the rest of it fell onto his knee, flailing for a couple of horrifying seconds before the charm broke and it went still.

"Well that was…unsettling," he said, picking it up. "I'm not sure I still want to eat it," he admitted, studying it carefully. It was frozen in the twisted pose of anguish it had been in when the charm broke. He looked up at me and shrugged, tossing it into his mouth. "Tastes fine," he said around a mouthful of chocolate, and the odd tension broke and we laughed.

We spent the remainder of the trip talking and picking through the pile of sweets, and it was the most perfect piece of time that I could remember. I felt apart from everything that scared me, that had come before now or might come after. It felt good to sit and talk to Harry and eat sweets-safe. Like he was the only one that I would ever have to face again. That wasn't true, of course. And I was forced to remember that when I heard the train breaks begin to screech as we pulled into the station in Hogsmead.

The platform was swarming with students, and I pressed close behind Harry as the crowd threatened to sweep us apart. I always felt smaller in crowds, which is saying something, since I really was smaller than nearly everyone else I knew. When I thought about it, Harry wasn't much bigger than I was. He was just about my height, and slender in build, but somehow, he still seemed to take up more space, plowing through the crowd where I would have been helpless. His energy made him bigger.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" a voice boomed over the crowd. The man calling us was nearly twice the size of a normal man, and three times as wide. He had bushy black hair and beard, streaked with gray.

I stared in horror, but Harry waved and jumped up and down, trying to be seen through the crowd. "Hagrid!" he called jubilantly, pulling me along toward the giant of a man.

"All right there, Harry?" the giant called back, grinning down at us as we joined the other first years. I did my best not to look terrified. "Any more firs' years? C'mon, follow me, and mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, we followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. Harry and I hung onto each other as we made our way down, as if we would be separated in the darkness if we let go.

"Yeh'll get yer first good sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid, called over his shoulder, "just round the bend here."

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. I gasped at the sight of the warm lights flickering in all the windows, lit up for the arrival of the students. The lights were reflected on the lake, so that in the darkness it looked like a sea of stars. "Wow," Harry whispered, glancing at me. The light from Hagrid's lantern glinted off his eyes, showing his excited smile.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. The two of us clambered into an empty boat and were followed by a girl with bushy brown hair and small cheekbones. Then a boy climbed in after her and I felt myself grow cold.

"Hey Harry! We lost you on the train. Where'd you get to?" the boy, who was obviously a Weasely, asked jovially. And oh God, he was _friends _with Harry. I couldn't breathe, casting a desperate look at Harry; I was surprised to see his eyebrows pull together in a frown directed at the Weasely boy.

"I sat with Draco," Harry replied lightly.

"My name's Hermione Granger," the bushy-haired girl inserted in the Weasely's stunned silence, holding out her hand to Harry, who grinned and shook it.

"Harry Potter," he replied.

"I gather that you're Draco then," she addressed me, holding out her hand again. I stared at it for a long minute before I shook it. She must not have recognized my name, like Harry hadn't that day. But it was obvious that Weasely had. He was still staring between me and Harry with a look of horrified confusion on his face. "What's the matter with him?" Hermione Granger asked, tilting her head to the side. Then she reached out and poked him before quickly withdrawing her hand; it made me smile.

"_What the hell_?" the Weasely roared suddenly, making me and Hermione flinch. Harry just scowled.

"Ron, are you having some sort of episode? If you insist on doing so, I'm afraid you're going to have to finish it in the lake," Harry said quietly. Hermione looked around at the three of us, aware that she was missing something but knowing now was not the time to ask.

"Harry, don't you know who this is? He's _Death Eater _spawn! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Ron Weasely cried, standing up so that the boat rocked wildly. "And you! What have you got planned, you little snake?" he growled at me, and I felt my breath catch with terror. He was going to kill me. Right here in this little boat, before I ever even got to Hogwarts.

"Ron, I'm warning you…leave Draco alone…" Harry said in the same calm, quiet voice from before.

"Stop sniveling and answer me, you slimy little-" and that's as far as he got before Harry's foot whipped into the side of his knee and one solid shove sent him tumbling into the lake with a mighty splash. My mouth fell open in the mirror image of the girl across from Harry, but he couldn't have looked calmer as he settled back into his seat.

Ron was pushed into Hagrid's boat by the giant squid, and spent the rest of the journey staring over at our boat with uncomprehending eyes. "I've always wanted to do that," Harry sighed happily.

"Why did you _do _that?" Hermione demanded in a shrill voice. I was still staring at Weasely.

"Well, he's always going to be a git. But I'm not going to tolerate anyone being mean to Draco," he said adamantly.

"Oh Merlin. Oh, Harry, you can't _do _that. You're going to get yourself _killed_," I said, my breath catching my throat, wheezing as I tried to take in air. I was hyperventilating. Weasely didn't even have to kill me-I was going to suffocate all on my own.

"Draco, calm down. Come on, breathe. It's okay. I know how to pick my fights, and I can handle Ron. I've been wanting to feed him to a lake monster since we were little kids," he said, rubbing soothing circles on my back. Slowly, I regained my ability to breathe. "Look at me," he said gently. I lifted my eyes to him and he bumped his head against mine. "Don't you believe I can handle anything yet? It won't take long."

"Well. It's perfectly obvious that I picked the most interesting boat on the lake," Hermione declared, and I looked back up at her; I'd forgotten she was there. "So. Um, does everyone hate you? Or just that little prat? Because it sounded like you're talking about everyone."

"Are you Muggleborn?" Harry asked, and she nodded. Which explained a lot. "Well, do you know what Death Eaters are?" he inquired.

"Yes, I've read all about the war. You don't look particularly evil, though," she commented, and I found myself smiling again. I hadn't even thought about the Muggleborns, who hadn't been raised with the prejudice of the wizarding world.

"Yeah, well, Draco's dad was a Death Eater," Harry began.

"I'm also being raised by one," I inserted numbly.

"Yes, that too," Harry agreed quickly. "And my mom is an Auror. My dad was one too, until him and Draco's dad killed each other in a duel when Voldemort was on his way to kill me because of some bizarre prophesy that highly doubtfully involves me-"

I flinched at the name, chilled by the objective way Harry explained our families' shared past. "He'd still really like to kill you," I inserted again.

"Yeah, that's true. But anyway, my mom got away with me. So all the Death Eaters were pissed, and hate his family. And everyone knows his dad was a Death Eater and that his uncle is one too, so he doesn't really have any ready friends. So I'm just going to beat everyone up," Harry finished with a wide smile.

"Oh Merlin," I murmured, burying my face in my hands.

"Good gracious," Hermione whispered. "Well aren't you two just the strangest boys I have ever met? I hope we're in the same House. I want to be friends with Harry, so he can beat up everyone who picks on me," she declared. Harry was the first to laugh, and the two of us quickly followed. It was so strange, how with Harry I could always find a way to laugh, to not be as scared.

And then the boat knocked against the shore. I looked around and saw that we were in some kind of underground harbor. We climbed out of the boats and onto rocks and pebbles. We followed Hagrid up a passageway in the rock after his lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. We walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? Good." Hagrid raised his gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

**(AN: yay for a longer chapter. I'm afraid it's going to sort of be like this a lot, since I really like writing in Draco's point of view. So his chapters may be longer than Harry's in general. But I do really love Harry. And I loved throwing Ron in the lake :) and I'm debating how important to make Hermione. Haven't decided yet. So review, and tell me what you think!)**


	3. Surprise at the Sorting

_Chapter Three: Surprise at the Sorting_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)**

The door swung open at once. A tall witch in brilliant emerald robes stood there, gazing down at us. My first thought was that she was no one to be trifled with, with her straight nose and stern expression.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid. I was fairly sure that she was one of the professors that my mom kept hoping would die so she could quit being an Auror and teach at Hogwarts. McGonagall made the list because she often went into battle with the Order of the Phoenix. Flitwick was on it too, for being ancient. And so was Binns, who was already dead, but might move on any time now.

"Thank you, Hagrid," she said. "I will take them from here." She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was enormous. The white stone walls were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing us led to the upper floors.

We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. I could hear the hum off hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right-that must be where the rest of the students were already seated-but Professor McGonagall showed us into a small, empty chamber off the hall. We crowded in, standing a bit closer together than we would usually have done, peering around nervously. Draco pressed close to my side, trying his best to be invisible. It was pretty impossible with his silvery blonde hair and translucent skin; he was much too striking to miss.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses." She went on to explain the importance of the Sorting, about the four houses, and house points. I wasn't really listening; I knew everything she was saying already. "The Sorting will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I shall return for you shortly. Please wait quietly." She left the chamber.

At the sounds of gasps for the others in the room, I looked up to see about twenty ghosts streaming through the wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. I wasn't listening to them, instead looking over them all with great interest. I had heard about the many ghosts of Hogwarts, and this was the first time I'd ever seen any in person. I decided that they were fascinating, and resisted the urge to reach up and touch one, knowing my hand would simply go through.

The ghosts offered only a moment of distraction before I reminded of the approaching Sorting. I smiled reassuringly at Draco. "See you on the other side," I whispered playfully to him when Professor McGonagall returned for us, leading us through the double doors into the Great Hall. He nodded, looking a little unsteady as we walked down the aisle between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.

The Great Hall was lit by thousands of floating candles over the four house tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. The tables were laid with golden plaits and goblets that glittered in the candlelight. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. At the center of the table, in the chair with the highest back, I recognized Albus Dumbledore from the few times he'd stopped by to check on my mother and me. He was still convinced that I was the object of his stupid prophesy. Whatever-I made my own destiny.

I noticed Draco gazing up at the ceiling, which looked amazingly like the night sky, complete with a few stray clouds blurring the stars. "It's not really the sky. It's a spell. I read about it," he whispered.

"Cool," I replied, grinning at him and ruffling his silky hair. It made him smile.

Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of us. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat that looked as if someone had tied it to the back of their broom and flown through a forest while the hat dragged on the ground. It was torn and patched and frayed and singed. I doubted that my mother would have let the thing in the house. We all stared at it for an endless moment, then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat began to sing.

"_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_  
_Your top hats sleek and tall,_  
_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_  
_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_  
_Where dwell the brave at heart,_  
_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_  
_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_  
_Where they are just and loyal,_  
_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_  
_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_  
_if you've a ready mind,_  
_Where those of wit and learning,_  
_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_  
_You'll make your real friends,_  
_Those cunning folks use any means_  
_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_  
_And don't get in a flap!_  
_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_  
_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. Draco was trembling, his breathing shallow. "I'm not any of those things. What if it just tells me to go away?" Draco hissed, tugging on my sleeve.

"Don't be ridiculous," I replied with a smile, meeting his frightened gaze. "The Sorting Hat will know where you belong. And then I'll yell at it until I'm there with you," I promised, and he sighed, looking back to the front as Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the Hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause-

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the Hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. I saw the ghost of a Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the Hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw, too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.

"Bulstrode, Millicent," became a Slytherin. I looked them over carefully, picking out the students that had Death Eater affiliations. It was most of them.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnigan, Seamus!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Then, "Granger, Hermione!"

I watched with interest as the girl went up to the stool and sat down. She'd been kind to Draco. Then, the Hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

I wondered if it was possible for us to be in Gryffindor. I wasn't certain what kind of nature Draco beneath the fear and pain that seemed to dominate his temperament at present. I wasn't worried about him, though. I could fit in wherever he belonged, I was sure.

The next few students went through their Sorting in a blur, until "Malfoy, Draco," was called.

The Hat was placed on his head, and it sat there. And then sat there some more. The students began to look around at each other. Draco's whole body seemed to be shaking, his hands gripping the sides of the stool he sat on. People began to murmur and frown. Those who hadn't recognized his name looked curious, but those who did looked suspicious and irritated.

And of course there came the whispers. The 'I hope that snake isn't in our House' and the 'He doesn't scare me, and I'll show him' and 'You can't trust a Malfoy' ran through the crowd like FiendFyre. I kept my eyes on Draco and tried to ignore them.

And then, "GRYFFINDOR!" rang into the room, and silence fell. A few people on the Gryffindor table clapped, before they realized that no one else had joined them and fell silent. McGonagall took the Hat off his head to reveal the tormented face of Draco. For a split second, his face displayed his roiling emotions. And then, he suddenly seemed to be suspended in some serene state, but I could sense from here the terror and horror rolling off him in waves as he got up and walked to the Gryffindor table.

I watched him sit two seats down from everyone else. And, to my pleasant surprise, little bushy-haired Hermione Granger got up from where she'd been sitting between two other girls that had just been sorted into Gryffindor, and moved down to sit beside Draco.

"Parkinson, Pansy," McGonagall called, as if everything was alright. A girl with shoulder-length black hair and a cold smile skipped up to the stool.

The hat had barely touched her head before it shouted "SLYTHERIN!" to the Great Hall.

The table erupted in cheers, and the students seemed to sort of return to normal. That probably wasn't going to last long, since it was my turn. "Potter, Harry"

And then, of course, there came the whispers, just like they had with Draco. The 'He's the boy that You-Know-Who keeps trying to kill' and the 'What's the Dark Lord so worried about' and 'I hope he's in our house' made me even angrier than the whispers about Draco had. I marched up to the stool and jammed the Hat on my head.

_Gryffindor! _I screamed in my head as soon as it was on.

"Gryffindor?" the Hat said aloud, low and sort of confused. The people that had heard clapped, but were looking around in confusion. "No, no, boy shut up in there so I can have a proper look," the Sorting Hat snapped, and a few people laughed.

_ You certainly have a loud Voice, boy,_ the Hat told me silently, speaking into my mind. _Students like you and the Malfoy boy always make my job difficult. Older than you should be. Not as simple. Hardly even count as children._

_ Just put me in Gryffindor, _I suggested, and the Hat chuckled.

_I'll admit, you have a rash streak…plenty of bravery…and of course, your loyalty and love know no bounds. But you would do well in Slytherin, boy. You have thirst to prove yourself, to achieve greatness through your own will, and Slytherin would help you do that, _the Hat droned_._

_ If you can see my whole mind, then you know where to put me, so get on with it, _I replied.

_Very well…better be…_ "GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat shouted the last word to the entire hall, and I grinned as it was lifted off my head. The table cheered, but I didn't look at any of them. I ran down and took my seat next to Draco, ruffling his hair.

"Hey, it'll be okay, Draco," I said as he leaned slowly over against my shoulder, his eyes clouded with the pained sadness that he was so full of before they slid closed. "I've got you," I whispered.

"They'll kill me," he choked, like his voice was gone.

"I'm not going to let that happen. Didn't you hear me? Everything's gonna be fine. I've got you," I whispered into his hair.

I didn't think he was going to reply. But then, very soft, I heard him murmur, "Okay, Harry." I smiled, and thought about what the Sorting Hat had said. _You certainly have a loud Voice, boy_. And as I met the hostile gazes of my House-mates, my resolve hardened to stone. I would use whatever Voice I had to protect Draco, to give him a chance to be happy. He was mine, now. And I wouldn't let him down.

**(AN: surprise! Draco is in Gryffindor. I spent forever trying to figure out where to put them. Harry could have gone anywhere and stayed like I wanted him, but what kind of latent traits could I give Draco to decide which house he belongs in? I settled on Gryffindor mostly because the hostility would be a lot easier to write, since Slytherins would be subtle in a way that Gryffindors wouldn't. I'm not sure how good I am at writing mean people yet, so here goes!)**

**(PS: please review and tell me if you like it as much as I do, or if it's coming across sort of ridiculous)**


	4. Dormitories

_Chapter Four: Dormitories_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Draco Malfoy)**

I trailed after Harry, my eyes fixed on his shoulders as we climbed a series of staircases up to Gryffindor Tower. How had this happened? I didn't understand anything the Hat had said while I was wearing it, about friends and inner strength. I wasn't brave or aggressive, which was what Gryffindor House was known for.

But then, there wasn't a House for weak, scared, hated little boys that wouldn't live to see seventeen. So maybe it had meant to put me where I'd known Harry belonged, because it had realized I wouldn't survive without him.

The password was "Gillieweed," and the way into the common room was a portrait of an impressively fat woman in a pink dress. I climbed through the hole that the portrait concealed, keeping close to Harry and trying to avoid the glares that came from every other direction.

Professor McGonagall was standing in front of the hearth inside, waiting for us. "Welcome to Gryffindor," she began, which led into a speech about the values of our House and founder, as well as what she would be expecting of all of us, especially the new first-years.

"Before all of you retire for the night, I need to speak with our first-year boys in the corridor," she concluded, turning without another word and stepping through the portrait hole.

We scrambled out after her, Harry and me standing slightly apart from the others. There was Weasely, who looked as if his dip in the lake had left him with a touch of cold. And then there were two other boys that I didn't know, one pale and freckly sort of like Weasely but with darker hair, and the other was as black as coffee. And behind them was a chubby boy that tripped on his way out of the common room.

"Now, our policy is no more than five students to a dormitory, and when there are more students than that, their year is given two dormitories. You may divide them however you wish," she told us, looking around at us until her eyes rested on me.

"Great, so we don't have to share a dorm with Malfoy," Weasely sneered, but I thought he sounded a little stupid with his stuffy nose.

"Mr. Weasely, that is hardly any way to treat a fellow Gryffindor," McGonagall snapped.

"The Sorting Hat can make mistakes," one of the other boys grumbled.

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth to scold him, but Harry interrupted. "Really, Professor, I think the best arrangement would be Weasely, Thomas, Finnigan, and Longbottom can have their lovely dorm; Draco and I will take the other," he told her with a grin. "That okay with everyone?" he asked, but he looked at me.

I smiled and nodded; it sounded perfect.

"Harry, what exactly is your problem?" Weasely demanded loudly, his nose whistling a bit. I wished he would leave us alone, and the thought surprised me. This boy had thought he was friends with Harry, and who wouldn't be upset about losing a friend like Harry?

"I think you're the one with the problem, and that what I do is really none of your business," Harry said, but there really wasn't any malice in his words. He yawned and smiled at Professor McGonagall, who was studying him curiously. "So, I think we're all in agreement that I'm the only one rooming with Draco? Yes? Excellent. Let's go to bed; I'm beat," he announced.

"The House Elves will bring in the required beds. Mr. Malfoy and Potter's dorm will be the door on the right, and the rest of you will be staying in the room on the left. Goodnight boys." And with that, she turned and strode down the corridor.

"Harry-"

"Ron, I have no obligation to explain myself to you, or to anyone. Goodnight," Harry said, pushing me ahead of him through the portrait hole. "Well this is just excellent, don't you think?" he asked once he'd shut the door of our dormitory behind him. He grinned around and then ran and leapt onto one of the beds.

I smiled, looking around the room. There were two beds with red velvet drapes, and a chest for each of us. Our trunks were already at the foot of our beds, and I recognized my own trunk at the foot of the bed Harry had sprawled himself on. He noticed me looking and grinned.

"Yeah, this one's yours. C'mere," Harry said, sitting up. I sat down beside him on the bed, kicking my shoes off and drawing my legs up against my chest. "You okay there?" he asked gently, sitting up beside me.

"I didn't even think about the people you might already be friends with," I admitted, staring at the door. There was a lock on this side, which was comforting.

"Are you talking about Ron? He's a git. I've never cared much for him, since we were kids. His brothers are okay, and his sister is too young to tell yet, but Ron has always been annoying. It's just too bad the giant squid didn't eat him," Harry said, making a face and sticking his tongue out, "even though he would have given it a stomach ache."

I smiled, shaking my head. "But what about the other boys in our year?" I asked.

"I wasn't kidding when I said that I have a tendency to not like people," he paused, looking at me out of the corner of his eyes and then looking away. "I don't get along with people. There's just something about you, though, that makes me feel more…human, I guess. Not as jumbled up and angry inside," he said, his voice soft and his eyes somewhere in the middle distance.

I stared at him for a long moment, but he didn't seem to have anything else to say, so I slowly leaned my side up against his and sighed when his arm draped around my shoulders and his head bumped comfortably against mine. It was a wonderful thought, that I really meant something to Harry. Maybe a bit out of my grasp to believe, but still nice to imagine. "I hope you don't regret being my friend," I whispered.

"Draco," he murmured against my hair, "if it makes you happy, I'll never regret it." I closed my eyes, savoring his warmth and words. His easy affection made me hungry for it, as unfamiliar as most of his gestures were. Sitting like this, so I could feel his heartbeat and his even breathing, was lulling me to sleep. So I leaned against him, warm and safe, and fell asleep.

_I was standing in front of the Great Hall, holding the Sorting Hat in my hands while a million faceless students hurled the plates off the table at me. And then Harry was standing there in front of me, a soft smile on his face as everything meant for me crashed into his back and he crumpled to the floor._

_The Sorting Hat was suddenly on my head, swallowing me. "He's all you've got, and you're going to break him against the stones," its voice hissed, becoming a different voice. "Bring me the boy, or I'll kill your mother," the Dark Lord hissed, standing above me in the darkness, holding my mother by her hair. She was emaciated, her skin gray and her eyes the colorless orbs of a corpse even as her mouth opened and she gave a tortured cry. Millions of black flies poured from her mouth, and covered me, and I couldn't breathe…_

"Draco! Draco, wake up!" Harry was calling, shaking my shoulder. I gasped, my hands flying to my face and scrubbing where I could still feel a thousand bugs on my skin and in my mouth.

"Bad dream," I muttered, half-lucid as I leaned into his warmth.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently, pushing my bangs out of my face. I could sort of see him in the silver light that the moon lent though the window. The shadow of his concerned frown and the whisper of his hand as it combed soothingly through my hair.

"Used to it," I murmured, closing my eyes to concentrate on how nice the petting felt. "Mmm, why are you in my bed?" I asked as I snuggled back down under the covers and against his chest.

"Cause I fell asleep here," he whispered, tucking my head under his chin and slinging an arm over my waist. "I could move," he offered, but he was asleep before I could reply. I smiled, falling back to sleep to the comforting rhythm of his heartbeat.

The next morning, Hermione sat down beside Harry across from me at the breakfast table. But she didn't so much sit down beside him as she did crash into his side, her arms loaded with books and her eyes bright.

"We're about to get our schedules! I can't believe I woke up so late, but I just couldn't stop reading last night," she told us, grinning at me as she dumped her books on the vast space of seating between us and the rest of the Gryffindor students. "Wow," she said after she realized what it meant, and the glares we were getting. "Leprosy."

Harry laughed and I grinned, shrugging. I felt stronger this morning, after waking up to Harry flying out of bed and dumping us both on the floor before he started crashing around the bedroom as he got ready, yelling that we were late. We were the first students to arrive at breakfast, a few minutes before the food appeared on the table. Slowly, the rest of the students had trickled in, some looking bright-eyed and excited, some with bleary eyes and sleepy voices, and then of course there were the ones that glared. But I didn't mind, too busy listening to Harry talk animatedly about taking me to meet Hagrid, which I tried to smile about, and giving me flying lessons, which made me smile in earnest.

"Invisible leprosy," Harry agreed, bringing me back to the conversation, which was interrupted by the arrival of our schedules.

"We have Potions with Slytherin this afternoon, and Charms this morning. I think I know where that is. Let's go," Hermione said as the food disappeared. "I want to sit in the front." Harry and I glanced at each other, and he grinned and shrugged before he got up to follow her.

We got lost.

"I know it's around here somewhere," Hermione said defiantly, tugging on a locked door that we had passed three times now. "You have to tickle some of the doors in the right place. I read about it," she said, running her fingertips deftly over the surface of the door, as high as she could reach. "Merlin's beard," she muttered angrily, going back to tugging. "Help me before we're late!" she ordered.

So all three of us were tugging away at the locked door when Filch walked around the corner and saw us.

**(AN: okay, so there are several things I want to say/ defend. The boys having their own dorm: it's possible. I had an explanation, but I just realized that I was making a reference to another fanfiction instead of any actual canon to back it up. Oh well. I guess it's just like that because it would be crazy for them to room with the other boys. Draco wouldn't have a chance. And they need to cuddle. So there. And second: Draco's nightmare was just a nightmare, not a vision or anything. And third: am I the only one that thought there was too much Hermione? I love Draco and Harry, and I don't think I really want a third main character. So she may hop in where I need her, but otherwise keep to herself. Since I doubt any of the other girls in her year will talk to her now.)**

**(PS: forgive the horrible rambling author's note and review please?)**


	5. Benevolent Leader

_Chapter Five: A Benevolent Leader_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)**

"I'm surprised with you, at least, Mr. Potter. But only because I have not had the pleasure of meeting either of your friends," Dumbledore said gravely, glancing from me over to Hermione and then Draco. His gaze lingered on Draco for a moment too long, and the anger simmering in my chest leapt dangerously when the blonde cringed back into his chair, trying his damnedest to become invisible. He shouldn't have to deal with this.

"Now Harry, why are you in my office on the first day of class?" he asked, his voice heavy with disappointment. I glared defiantly back at him. It had been a long time since this crap had stopped working on me. He couldn't induce shame in me like he had once been able to, not when I'd done nothing wrong, and not when Draco was frightened.

"We got lost. We didn't realize that it was the third corridor, or we wouldn't have been there. I don't think any of us have a desire to die a painful death, like you said we would if we went in there. None of us knew where the Charms classroom was," I said sardonically, angry that we were here, planning a million ways to take revenge on Filch, and waiting for Dumbledore to get through instilling what a benevolent leader he was into Hermione and Draco.

"Sir, it's really my fault. I was so eager to get to class that I didn't want to wait and ask any of the other older students to help. I thought I knew where I was going, but I got turned around," Hermione piped up, her eyes full of tears. I felt sorry for her. She didn't realize that Dumbledore already knew we were telling the truth, and was only playing his stupid games now. "I'm sorry. We won't ever go there again, now that we know what it is."

"Well, it is only human for us to make mistakes. But if you aren't certain of your way, be sure to ask for help next time. It is very easy to get lost in Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling kindly. So full of understanding. "You will all learn your way around in due time. Now, I will explain to Argus that you were only lost, and cancel your detentions. You're all free to go," he told us. I hated him.

"Thank you, sir," Hermione said happily, jumping up and grinning. "Come on—if we hurry, we might be able to catch the last part of the Charms lesson."

"Dumbledore scares me," Draco admitted quietly as he followed me up the stairs toward Gryffindor tower. Hermione was back downstairs, interrogating Professor Flitwick about the Charms lesson, since we had arrived just as the class was being dismissed.

"Yeah, he has that effect on people he isn't worried about having on his side," I sneered unhappily, and Draco's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"You don't like Dumbledore?" he asked, sounding like an odd mixture of curious and hopeful.

"He wants me to be the object of his stupid bloody prophesy, and save the wizarding world from the forces of evil and all that drivel. _'Born at the end of July to parents that have thrice defied Voldemort,'_ or some nonsense like that. Which could be me, or Neville Longbottom, as far as anyone knows. And since he hasn't marked either one of us as his equal, which is supposed to happen, there is no way to guess which one of us it will be. Dumbledore just has a firmer grip on my mother than Neville's gram, which he thinks means he can control me better," I explained angrily, the whole stupid story spilling out.

I turned around to face him, meeting his wide silvery eyes. "I've been to dueling classes since I was seven. Tumbling, gymnastics, hand-to-hand. All this _training_ for the day that I save the bloody world. And I'm sick of it. I get so _angry_ at all of them, if I let myself think about anything. I can't breathe and I can't think straight, and I do crazy things that don't make sense because I can't stand myself," I ranted, my breathing becoming sharp as my chest began to tighten around the blaze of rage that had begun rising up while we were in the headmaster's office.

"Harry…" he whispered, and the fire in my chest went out all at once. Slowly, a small smile tugging at my lips, I reached out and ruffled Draco's hair. It was as fine as silk under my fingers, and fell perfectly back into place.

"I'm glad I found you, Draco," I murmured, my smile soft and genuine. His eyes were wide and filled with a sort of awe. I bumped my head gently against his, grinning and ruffling his hair some more. "Sorry for exploding at you," I said as I stepped back from Draco, my hand falling to my side. "I get a little shaky sometimes," I laughed, tapping the side of my head with my finger.

"No wonder you're so nice to me. You're mental," Draco said, bumping his shoulder against mine as we resumed walking up the stairs. The gesture was comfortable, and he walked beside me now, instead of behind. I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes, and I saw the quiet joy there. I supposed that he'd just realized that as much as I would defend him and make him happy, he was completely necessary to me remaining Harry.

~  
**(AN: Oh my god please forgive me for this chapter being so pitifully short. It was actually all in Draco's point of view to begin with, but the next scene absolutely **_**has**_** to be Draco, and the chapter was getting out of hand in length, so I tore out a chunk in the middle and changed it over to Harry's point of view. I promise to try super hard to make Harry's next chapter much longer, I'm just really eager to get to the next chapter! I've had it in my head ever since I first got this whole idea! So if you're a lovely awesome reviewer, please don't be too hard on me if you want more Harry, because it's coming, really it is.)**


	6. Finding the Sky

_Chapter Six: Finding the Sky_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Draco Malfoy)**

"I don't think we're supposed to be doing this," I said lightly as Harry fiddled with the lock on the broom cupboard in the Gryffindor Quidditch team's locker room.

"Got it," he said triumphantly as the lock clicked open. "We won't touch any of the players' brooms, only the school's cruddy ones. Here are a couple of old Shooting Stars. Come on," he said, handing me a broom and leading me back out onto the pitch.

"We're going to get in trouble," I predicted, even though I had come to be under the impression that I was safe from Dumbledore as long as whatever wrongdoing I was involved in also involved Harry. Because he wanted Harry to like him, to put it simply.

"Well no one has said we couldn't do this, so not too much trouble, I'm sure," he replied happily. "Now come on, you mount it like this, and keep your grip like this so you don't slide off. You walk as smooth as a cat, so I'm not worried about your balance. But don't get up to high until you're sure you won't slide off sideways. Now, you just kick up off the ground." He did so, and hovered there a couple of feet off the ground. "Come on," he beckoned with a confident smile. "Don't worry about leaving the ground-just think of it as finding the sky, and let go."

I took a deep breath, gripping the broom handle so tightly my knuckles turned white, and kicked off the ground. I felt a rush of exhilaration coarse through me, as the wind rustled my robes and hair and the ground sunk away beneath me. "I like this," I said quietly to Harry, who was rising up into the air with me.

"Let's do a loop around the field," he suggested, pulling away and heading toward the Quidditch pitch. I followed, exulting in the freedom of the air. And I took to it like I'd never taken to anything before. The loop around the Quidditch pitch quickly became a race, which became something else altogether. In no time at all, we were swooping around each other like birds, instincts on fire with awareness of each other, and we flew into twisting spirals that led into breathtaking dives. Our eyes would lock, and his emerald eyes were always blazing brightly, a wild grin on his face. And we wouldn't look away until it was impossible to keep going or else crash, and we pulled away.

This went on, insane and beautiful, until a voice broke in, nearly startling us into a collision. Harry led back down to the ground, landing in front of the very stern figure of Severus Snape.

"And what exactly do the two of you think you're doing? Draco, your uncle would be very displeased to find you breaking rules twice in your first two days," he said severely, and I cowered, the last bit of an elated flush draining out of my face. Snape was in the Dark Lord's Inner Circle with my uncle, and would occasionally stop at Malfoy Mansion with news or to travel together to a meeting. In the few times I'd met him, I'd found him frightening.

"Who says flying is against the rules?" Harry said just as severely, unimpressed by the Potion Master's glare. "I was just teaching Draco. He'd never flown before." The words might have been a bid for sympathy, if Harry's tone and gaze weren't so direct and challenging.

"Mr. Potter," Snape said coldly. "Are you suggesting that Mr. Malfoy had never flown, and you had him attempting those absurd stunts I witnessed?"

"Yeah. He's a natural. We wouldn't have gotten hurt. We can feel each other," he said, gesturing toward the sky. I bit my lip to hide a smile, following his gaze up toward the fluffy white clouds and clear blue sky. Undeniably, I wanted Snape to go away so that Harry and I could go back to flying. I wanted to spend the rest of my life in the air, where I was finally free.

"Well, I've certainly heard enough," a female voice said from beside the Quidditch locker rooms. We all turned surprised eyes on Professor McGonagall, who stared calmly back. "I'll leave their punishment for breaking into the locker rooms and using school property without permission to you, Professor Snape," McGonagall said lightly. "But I believe that both of you boys should come to tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team next week." And with that, she turned and strode off toward the school.

"As you are obviously the instigator of this idiocy, Mr. Potter, I will see you for detention in my office after the evening meal. Put those brooms away and go study something," he ordered, before turning and striding off in the same direction as McGonagall.

"Yeah, I know you told me so," Harry said jovially as he walked back toward the locker room, where he put the brooms back in the cupboard. "But did you hear McGonagall? Do you think we have a chance at tryouts?" he wondered aloud. "If we're amazing, McGonagall might make them take us on. And we are. So she might," he said, grinning.

"Yeah, and I'd take a Bludger to the head. Probably from my own team," I said sarcastically.

"Nah, I don't think Fred and George would do that. They care too much about the House Cup to take out their own Chaser. But I've played Quidditch with them, and they always know exactly what the other is doing. It's hell to work against. But now I've got you, so we could probably take them," Harry rambled happily as we walked back toward the castle.

"Do you want to try out for the team?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I was going to anyway, but now I want you to go with me. You don't have to, but you're a natural on a broom. And once we're on the team, we can go flying anytime we want, and say it's for practice or whatever," he said cajolingly, and I laughed.

"Alright. But if they hit me in the head with a Bludger, I'm blaming you," I informed him, and he grinned back. And that look alone told me that he would knock anyone who tried off their broom.

**(AN: So, a short Draco chapter for a change. I loved the idea of Harry teaching Draco, who'd never been on a broom, how to fly. And Draco was a natural :] I love it. Okay, this chapter was mostly just for me, but it did give me a chance to sort of skim the surface of Harry and Draco's bond. And to give myself an idea for what the next chapter will be about, since I have no idea what the hell is actually going to happen in this story, past what I've already written at any given point. I can't figure out how to jump to their fourth year, which is when it will get interesting. I just need to get a few key points over, things that matter and will show how it'll be in the time I skip. And I haven't decided what those are or how I'm doing it. But the next chapter will be important. I think. Anyway, review and leave your thoughts on my insanity. Please. I really need some input. I'm venturing toward the evil cliffs of Writer's Block.)**


	7. Detention

_Chapter Seven: Detention_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)**

I hadn't even had a potions class yet, and I already hated the dungeons. I didn't like being underground at all, and I wasn't particularly fond of the dark or cold either. Despite the pleasant day up above, the black stone walls radiated cold. I already sort of knew where the potions classroom was, and the teachers' offices were generally accessible through their room, so I was going with that.

The door of the potions classroom was propped open, making it a little easier to locate. I was already twenty minutes late for my detention when I slumped down into the chair sitting across from the desk behind which Severus was sitting.

"Harry, why do you find it necessary to cause your mother so much grief? What exactly are you trying to prove with the Malfoy boy?" he asked, leaning back in his chair from the book he had propped open on his desk. His gaze was cool and direct.

I glowered back at him. "I don't do anything on her account. We were just having fun. And you can mind your own bloody business about Draco," I replied coldly, and Severus rolled his eyes at me.

"She will forbid it when she sees you in person again, Harry. You know the only reason she hasn't yet is because she never does anything important over letters," he said severely, and now I rolled my eyes at him.

"Let her forbid away. If she wants to keep me away from Draco, she can go ahead and try," I said resolutely.

"You get your stubbornness from _her_. Don't forget that," he warned.

"And I must get my taste in company from my father, since hers is obviously flawed," I replied with a tight smile and he flushed. It may have been a surprise to anyone else, including Dumbledore and Voldemort, but I was plenty aware of my mother's _thing_ with the oily potions master. Personally, I'd never cared much for him. "So if you're done lecturing me, can I leave?" I asked, my voice laced with boredom. And when I got up to leave, he didn't bother to try to stop me.

I stopped at the door and looked back over my shoulder. "If you're going to assign me any more detentions, you better leave me to Filch before one of your lovely snakes reports to Voldemort that you've been alone with me and I'm still breathing," I said with a grim smile before I slipped into the corridor and was gone.

"He's really not bad, Draco. A little scary to look at, but completely harmless," I assured Draco as we walked across the grounds toward Hagrid's hut. Double Potions with the Slytherins had been enraging, with Severus constantly stinging at me with snide comments. I wished I could hex the slimy git, but instead I dragged Draco out of the transfiguration text book he was trying to read and marched him across the grounds towards a ragged little hut flanked by a currently bare pumpkin patch.

"His dog is just the same," I added as we reached the door.

"He has a dog?" Draco demanded in a shrill voice. But I'd already knocked on the door, and then we heard a resounding _WOOF_ from within, and any trace of color left Draco's face, which was pale to begin with.

And then the door was flung open and the looming figure of Hagrid appeared in the doorway, shoving Fang back and telling him to shut up. "Hey there boys, c'mon in. I got ye some tea made, an' some fudge," he told us, grinning behind his beard as he stepped out of our way. Fang was excited, barking and bouncing around behind his master as we stepped into the hut.

"Hey Hagrid. Hey there, Fang," I called, ruffling the dog's big ears in both my hands. "Merlin, Hagrid, what do you feed him? Dogs aren't meant to be this big," I asked jovially as I allowed Fang to slobber all over my hands, which quickly became all over my forearms.

"Oh, he ain't any bigger. Come on, sit down, I've got the tea ready. Who's yer friend here, Harry?" Hagrid asked as we took our seats at the table. I wiped my arms on my robes and accepted a cup of tea that was more appropriately proportional to Hagrid than it was to me or Draco.

"This is Draco Malfoy. He's in Gryffindor with me," I introduced him casually. Hagrid's eyebrow rose and he studied Draco for a moment. But then he did exactly what I'd hoped he would; he shrugged and poured a cup of tea for Draco.

"So how've yer classes been? Not gettin' yerselves inta trouble yet, are ye?" Hagrid asked us, placing a plate of fudge on the table. I knew better, but Draco didn't. I watched him from the corner of my eyes, and he tried his best to chew and swallow politely, but the laborious look on his face was unmistakable.

"Oh, no. Well, I did get detention. But it was just Snape being…well, himself. We went flying on some school brooms, and he decided it was against the rules, the greasy git. But McGonagall said we should come try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and that's tomorrow," I told him happily.

"And we got sent to Dumbledore's office," Draco reminded me quietly, smiling wryly.

"Oh yeah. We were lost, and tried to get into a locked door that ended up actually leading to the forbidden bit of the castle, or else die a painful death and all that. And Filch found us, and being the evil old codger that he is, he took us to the headmaster's office. After we told him what happened, of course he let us go," I explained quickly.

"Ye say ye' ain't been inta no trouble, and then go on an' tell me 'bout all the trouble ye've got yerselves inta," Hagrid laughed, shaking his head and eating a piece of the fudge as easily if it were edible to any regular human.

"Oh, and we've got our own dorm—just the two of us. No more than five to a dorm, you know, and there are six Gryffindors this year, so we got to split it up any way we wanted. So the other boys took one dormitory, and Draco and I have our own," I explained happily.

"That'll oughta ye outa some trouble with yer classmates," Hagrid laughed. "Ye never did take a likin' to nobody verra' easy." He glanced at Draco, who blushed and hid a smile. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about our classes, until it started to get dark and we headed back up to the school.

"That wasn't so bad," Draco admitted on the walk back.

"I knew Hagrid would like you. Hagrid likes everyone," I said, grinning. "And his fudge is even edible if you heat it up." Draco laughed. I decided that it was my favorite sound in the world.

**(AN: okay, I'm officially blocked. I have no idea how to transition between their first year and their forth. This chapter was actually excruciating to write because I got bored halfway through the visit with Hagrid and couldn't think of things for them to say. The only thing I liked about this chapter is revealing the Lily/Snape that's off in the background of the plot. I don't think it will be very important, at least not yet. But until I can get my story a few years into the future, I'm not going to worry much about them. So help me. Please review. I love this story and I don't want to give up on it.)**


	8. Flash Forward

_Chapter Eight: Flash Forward_

_~Draco~_

Quidditch tryouts were almost fun, but sort of a nightmare at the same time. Harry and I tried out as a unit, flying circles around the baffled older players. At McGonagall's stern stare, Oliver Wood invited us to play Chasers on the House team. In our first match, Slytherin got the snitch, but by that point we'd scored so many goals that Gryffindor won regardless.

I took a bludger to the shoulder after the game was over, and Harry punched a boy twice his weight in the jaw. He scrubbed every trophy in the trophy room for it, but only smiled and ruffled my hair when I tried to insist that he stopped doing things like that.

_~Harry~_

"I just want to have a quick look in the restricted section. What kind of books would they keep in a school and not let us read them? I'm sure we won't be caught. How can old Filch watch the whole school at once?" I'd said, and Draco followed me.

But of course, Filch was watching the one part of the school we were headed to, and we ducked into an empty classroom to hide. "I told you," Draco murmured as we leaned against the wall and listened to Filch go past us.

"Wow. Look at this thing," I breathed, walking over to the tall mirror that was in the corner of the room. There were some nonsense words inscribed over the top. "_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_," I read aloud. "Is that Latin?" I asked Draco, who would know.

"No, it's not. I think this is the Mirror or Erised. I've read about it," he said quietly, going to stand in front of it. I stood beside him and looked at our reflections in the dusty glass. "What does it do?" I asked curiously.

"What do you see?" he asked without answering my question, his voice a little unsteady.

"Well it's just us. How do you turn it on? Oh. We're smiling in the mirror, and I think we might be older. Is that it? And this was important enough for someone to put in a book?" I asked.

Draco's voice was hollow and quiet when he answered. "_I show not your face but your heart's desire_. That's what the inscription says. It's backwards. Mirror language," he whispered, his eyes wide and unseeing.

"Ohhh," I said, realizing why he looked so shell-shocked. "Come on, Draco. Let's go back to the common room. That's enough mirror gazing for us," I decided, and guided him back to Gryffindor Tower. I hadn't seen the restricted section of the library, but the stunned joy in Draco's eyes that hardly waned over the following days was more than I could have hoped for.

_~Draco~_

I was amazed when I woke up on Christmas morning and found not only the somber package I had been expecting from Uncle Silas, but also a small pile of bright and messily wrapped presents from my _friends_. Harry sat on the bed across from me, smiling because he knew.

"Where are yours?" I asked.

"I'll open them in a minute. I want to watch you. Come on, this one is from Hermione," he said, picking up a package and handing it to me. I opened it slowly, and felt myself smile painfully when I saw that it was a box of peppermint toads. I had friends that knew my favorite sweets. It still felt crazy.

"Hagrid's next," Harry said, handing me a round tin. It had fudge in it, and Harry smiled. "We'll put it beside the fire and try some later." I nodded and set it aside. "I got you this," he said quietly, holding a small package wrapped in silver paper, switching it back and forth between his hands and smiling in a way that might have been shy if Harry was ever shy. Then he held it out to me. I unwrapped it carefully. It was a thin silver band that tightened to my wrist as soon as I'd slipped it over my hand.

"It's warm," I said quietly, so in awe I could barely speak.

"Yeah. It's a spell. For when we can't talk during the summer. Yours gets warm when I think about you, and mine gets warm when you think about me," he explained, showing me the one that he was already wearing.

I would never forget that smile.

_~Harry~_

"I forbid you to fraternize with that Malfoy boy. You're going to get yourself killed! Not to mention throwing away allies left and right! I thought you were smarter than this, Harry. I thought we had a plan," Mother said as soon as we were in the house after summer break. I had declined her demand that I come home during the other holidays, but there really hadn't been any choice now.

"It was your plan, never mine. And I don't need allies, I need friends," I said calmly, dragging my trunk towards my bedroom.

"And you think that boy is your friend? That he isn't going to lead you straight into the hands of You-Know-Who?" she cried. "You don't think he's been telling his uncle every little detail about you?"  
"Mother," I murmured, my voice low and cold, trying desperately to hold onto the control on my anger. "You're not going to change my mind. And the only way you're going to stop me from being friends with Draco is if you transfer me to Durmstrang, where they're training the next generation of Death Eater. So go ahead and try to stop me."

And she did try.

_~Draco~_

"So I guess we have Dumbledore to thank for the fact that I'm back at all for my second," Harry informed me once we had settled in our car of the Hogwarts Express. "She wanted to homeschool me. What a nightmare. I was locked in my room all summer as it was, except for training and such."

Seeing Harry again felt like a dream, with all his loud colorfulness and animated talking. "I read a lot," I said after a moment.

"I figured," he said, and his voice was soft and quiet. "I missed you a lot," he added, and I blushed.

"I know," I replied, feeling warm and strange as I touched the bracelet that I never took off. "Missed you too," I whispered, and he smiled and ruffled my hair.

"I know," he said softly. I was so happy to be with Harry again that it hurt.

_~Harry~_

"I'm glad they found out that he was a fraud. I couldn't have stood another year of Defense Against the Dark Arts with Gilderoy Lockheart. What an idiot," I complained idly, slouching in my seat on the train.

Hermione sulked quietly, still put out that she had been wrong about Lockheart. "He attracted a lot of Nargles," Luna observed serenely, staring out of the window at the passing landscape.

"There's no such thing," Hermione couldn't resist muttering, but Luna acted as if she hadn't heard her. And maybe she really hadn't. One could never be completely sure with Luna.

"I just hope we have a better professor next year. The only thing I learned this year was…well, I can't think of anything," I said, and Draco laughed. Luna smiled out the window. Hermione sulked some more. I loved my friends.

~Draco~

Harry practically tackled me when he saw me on the platform. "It's Moony! Moony is going to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts!" he cried, shaking me a bit and then jugging me. "You're getting taller," he observed offhandedly, ruffling my hair.

"But I thought he had a…problem," I said, bewildered.

"Solved. Well, not exactly solved, but under control. Come on, come meet him. He brought me to the station. He's taking the train to school with us," Harry said excitedly, his words running together, he was speaking so quickly. And then he was dragging me off in the direction he'd come from, almost running into a tall man that grinned down at us.

"I'm guessing this is Draco, then?" he laughed, holding out his hand. His eyes were a not-quite-human golden color, and his tawny hair was streaked with gray. His clothes were worn and his expression was full of warmth and kindness. I liked him immediately.

"Yeah," I nodded, shaking his head. "And you are Professor…Moony?" I asked, and he laughed.

"Remus Lupin," he told me, smiling. "Shall we board the train, or would you like to fetch your other friends from the crowd first?" he asked Harry jokingly, and we went and claimed and empty compartment. Hermione and Luna joined us soon after, and we spent the majority of the train ride laughing at stories about Professor Lupin's school days with Harry's father and their friends.

_~Harry~_

"Maybe we could get Snape sacked," I suggested once we'd seated ourselves in our compartment. "I can't believe he did that. Bloody spiteful son of a—"

"Now Harry, that's no way to talk about a teacher," Hermione chided, but even she didn't mean it. Snape had sunk to a new low when he'd told his Slytherins that Moony was a werewolf. The slimy bastard.

"Moony was the best teacher we'd ever had!" I exclaimed. "And Snape is nothing but a slimy, greasy—"

"Harry, really. We know. We'll all miss Professor Lupin teaching us Defense Against the Dark Arts. But I'm sure Dumbledore will find someone just as good to teach us," she reassured me.

"I liked meeting the mermaids," Luna said in her vague, quiet way.

"I thought they were a bit horrible," Draco said, wrinkling his nose.

"Their music was beautiful," Luna murmured dreamily.

"Luna, their voices were horrible," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. She could never help arguing with the odd things that Luna would often say, but the blonde girl was no longer paying attention, smiling distractedly out the train window and humming to herself. "I can't wait for next year. I hate summer. I can't visit or even owl either one of you, there's nothing to do once I've read next year's books, and my parents love work so much that we almost never go on holiday," Hermione complained the same as she usually did.

"You could come visit us," Luna said without looking away from the window. "Me and Daddy. But you probably don't want to. It's okay."

Hermione smiled, and I was reminded that despite their strange arguments, the girls were friends. I remembered suddenly that it had been Hermione that had hexed Theodore Knott for harassing Luna back in our second year and Luna's first, bringing the strange girl into our happy band of outcasts. "That would be great, Luna. Thank you," Hermione said. Luna smiled.

I smiled at Draco, happy that at least the girls wouldn't be alone all summer. But then I thought of how much I would miss Draco all summer, all over again, exactly like I did every summer. So much time had passed since the afternoon in the robe shop before our first year, when we didn't even know each other's names.

One day I would cast every shadow out of Draco's eyes.

**(AN: Thank you for the lovely reviews! I appreciated them so much, and they helped me get three years out. I tried this chapter a couple of different ways, and this was my favorite. I believe it gets everything important across. I hope so, anyway. Review to tell me what you think please! Alright, on to fourth year!)**

**(AN2: Forgot to mention that I don't have a beta reader. Not sure how to get one, either. So I apologize for the mistakes, since I'm sure there are plenty of them.)**


	9. The Hogwarts Express

_Chapter Nine: The Hogwarts Express _

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)**

There are just some things that I was certain could not be forgiven, and not letting me go to the Quidditch world cup was one of them. "Don't be too mad at her. She's only trying to protect you," Sirius said, sitting down on my bed as I got Hedwig into her cage. I glared at him over my shoulder, and he shrugged and gave up defending her. "I know, I know. I was on your side, remember?" he said, holding her hands up in surrender.

"Yeah, I remember. You and Moony were never any match for mum," I replied with a grin, and he laughed his barking laugh. "Thanks for trying though. I'll go to the next one. She won't be able to stop me then." Neither of us mentioned the fact that she had been right, that there had been a Death Eater attack at the world cup this year. "I'm just ready to be back at Hogwarts." I missed Draco more ever summer, but I didn't feel like that was something I could say, even to Padfoot. And in turn, when I thought of Draco and it warmed his bracelet, it reminded him of me and mine warmed up. I didn't think they were ever completely cold, as if we were always at least in the back of each other's minds all the time.

"What is that?" Sirius asked then, nodding at the silver band I wore on my wrist. I realized that I had spaced out, my hand on the bracelet. "You're always wearing it."

"Oh, it nothing," I said, too quickly.

"It's enchanted," he drawled, and I rolled my eyes, giving up.

"It was what I got Draco for Christmas in our first year. It's a set of two, and his warms when I think of him and vice versa," I explained, and his eyebrows rose. I blushed angrily; I never spoke to anyone about Draco unless I was defending him to mum. I didn't know what to say now.

"Where did you find something like that?" he asked.

"Oh, I used the passage you told me about behind the hag statue that leads to Hogsmead and bought them in one of the shops," I told him. "Now aren't we going to miss the train if we stay here much longer?" I asked quickly, uncomfortable with the conversation. "Let's go." Sirius knew when I was done talking, and he nodded and shrunk my trunk with a quick spell and picked it up. "I bet all my robes are the wrong size when I get to school," I said with a grin.

"Shut up, kid," he laughed, and we left the house by floo to Sirius' house, where he kept his motorbike, which I wasn't supposed to go anywhere on. But how was mum ever going to find out that we didn't floo to the platform like we were supposed to? And I loved the motorbike. We were nearly late for the train, with only enough time to hug quickly and have my trunk returned to its original size.

I was barely on the train before it started rolling, and I waved quickly before I went to find my friends. I noticed as soon as I was in the compartment that Draco looked pale and drawn, like he always did at the beginning of the school year, as if he hadn't seen sunlight all summer. Quidditch would fix that, like it always did.

And then I remembered that we wouldn't be playing Quidditch this year and grinned. "You won't believe the news I have," I said as I fell into the seat beside Draco. He smiled, and I knew that it didn't have much to do with what I'd said; it made me feel light and warm.

"What is it?" Hermione asked with interest.

"We're going to have the Triwizard Tournament," I said dramatically. Draco and Hermione looked duly surprised, but Luna hummed and played with her hair. "Sirius heard it from Ludo Bagman himself, the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. We won't have Quidditch this year because they're using the pitch for one of the challenges. It's going to be great. Students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are going to be coming and staying at the school and everything."

"Wow," Hermione said, frowning in thought. "But they stopped the Twiwizard Tournament back in the eighteenth century because it was too dangerous…kids were getting killed."

"Yeah, but they're changing some rules so that it's supposed to be safer. I think I could do it," I said, grinning. "But Sirius said they aren't letting anyone younger than seventeen enter, so I won't be able to this year. If nobody dies, we'll probably keep doing it, so I'll get my chance eventually."

"Something might happen. I have a feeling," Luna said quietly, a vague frown on her face as she turned and looked at me. "I don't like it." For a moment, her blue eyes were bright and sharp. A chill raised the hair on my arms and the back of my neck.

"Luna, stop it. I hate it when you do that," Hermione said shrilly, poking the other girl several times in the arm. Luna blinked, her expression becoming dreamy again, and she started humming and looked out of the window. I looked over at Draco and he was paler than usual, still staring at Luna.

"Mother wouldn't let me go to the Quidditch World Cup because she said it was too dangerous. Of course she was probably right, since there was a Death Eater attack and all, but I still would have really liked to go. Ireland's chasers smashed Bulgaria, but Victor Krum got the Snitch," I rambled, and Draco grinned.

"Like our first match. Against Slytherin," he recalled with a smile. "By the time anyone saw the Snitch, we were so far ahead that it didn't matter."

"Yeah," I laughed. "But Victor is a bloody good Seeker. He caught the Snitch with a broken nose and everything. He's still in school, and they almost never recruit that early. I think he goes to Durmstrang, come to think of it. So he might be at Hogwarts this year. I'll have to owl Sirius and ask him," I said.

It had begun to rain, and the storm continued to worsen as we drew closer to Hogwarts. We bought sweets from the lunch cart, and we shared them and talked about Quidditch and the Triwizard Tournament for much of the remainder of the ride. It was pitch black outside when the Hogwarts Express slowly came to a stop in the Hogsmead station. When the doors to the train opened, we made a run for the carriages, bundling gratefully inside. A few moments later, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages began its rumbling and splashing journey up to the castle.

**(AN: okay, so their fourth year begins with a fairly boring chapter. I did like introducing Sirius, since he hadn't really come up yet. He didn't go to Azkaban in this universe of mine, but Peter Pettigrew did. It gets more interesting in the next chapter, I promise. ^_^ You know I like to save my favorite parts for Draco's point of view. Review and tell me how you think it's going!)**


	10. In the Courtyard

_Chapter Ten: In the Courtyard_

**(This Chapter is from the point of view of Draco Malfoy)**

The storm had mostly blown over by the next morning, and the light in the Great Hall during breakfast was pale gray and strange. Harry was looking over our schedule and piling his plate with sausages simultaneous, managing not to miss his plate once. "We don't have Moody until Thursday. He should be interesting; his entrance last night was dramatic enough, wasn't it? We have Herbology today and then Care of Magical Creatures…with the Slytherins, of course. That'll be great. Divination this afternoon…I wonder if she'll start the year of by predicting my untimely death again…mental old bat," he rambled, tossing the schedule aside and beginning to eat.

"You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" Hermione asked, sitting down and buttering herself some toast. "Then you would be doing something sensible, like Arithmancy."

"Oh, be quiet and eat your toast," Harry said without venom as he dug into his breakfast. "Maybe we'll actually learn something in there this year, but if we don't, it wouldn't bother me much," he grinned between mouthfuls. I rolled my eyes.

"Stop talking and eat your food before you make us late," I said lightly, smiling and looking up at the enchanted ceiling. "I wish we were having Quidditch," I though aloud, turning to look across the table at Harry, who had an odd look on his face.

"We can still go flying," he said quickly, eating the last bit of his eggs and standing up. "We could go between lunch and Divination. It's a good day to fly."

"Alright," I agreed as we left the hall. "I'm going to ask Professor McGonagall for permission," I added. "You know what happened last time."

"I know," he grinned, ruffling my hair. "But it was a brilliant fly, wasn't it?" he asked. I just smiled. There was no arguing with that.

We spent the rest of the morning squeezing puss out of bubotubers, which was sort of disgusting, and trying to feed Blast-Ended Skrewts, which was sort of dangerous. Harry began by healing a burn on my hand at the end of class, and ended up standing outside Hagrid's cabin mending several of our classmates for quite a while after the bell for lunch had rung.

"I didn't know you knew any medical magic," Hermione said, impressed, as he concentrated on a burn on her forearm.

"Part of my summer training," he muttered. "Minor healing—scrapes, bruises, and some burns. My mother is completely mental. But at least I can actually use some of it," he said with a shrug, dropping her arm. "There. Now come on, I'm starving." We walked back up to the castle quickly and sat down at the Gryffindor table. "At least skrewts are small," Harry said as we loaded our plates.

"Blast-ended skrewts grow to be between six and nine feet long in the span of five months. They feed on blood, and most any kind will do. I'm just hoping the things die of starvation before Hagrid figures that out," I said, wrinkling my nose. "Those things will kill us if he has us trying to feed them once they've fully matured. As much as I like Hagrid, I wish he would choose more reasonable creatures to teach us about. Or at least something _useful_, which skrewts aren't. In any way."

"First of all, it amazes me that you knew that. And second, you know that Hagrid has no idea which animals are reasonable to reasonably sized people, since he isn't," Harry said with a grin. "Oh, and third…look at Weasely," he said with a sly grin, nodding down the table toward where Weasely was nursing a nasty burn on his hand. "He was too much of a prat to ask me to heal him."

"Of course," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Now eat your food before it gets cold."

"Yes, mum," Harry grumbled with a playful smile, and I laughed.

"I think there's something to be said for shade trees," I observed, several days later out in the courtyard during a break between classes. I had never really thought about it much, but the light was sort of green and gold, and it shimmered when the breeze moved the branches.

"Hm," Harry mumbled, opening his eyes a bit. He was sprawled in the grass beside me and was using one of the books I'd brought out as a pillow, albeit most likely not a very comfortable pillow. The other book was propped open in my lap, but I had become distracted from my reading by the light under the tree. "I like shade trees. But I think a root may be poking me in the back," he said sleepily, scooting sideways until his head fell off of _A Moving Myth: The Sea of Monsters to the Bermuda Triangle_. "What is this, anyway?" he asked, picking the book up and examining the cover, which pictured a boat being destroyed by a very large squid.

"It's about how Muggle myths relate to the kraken, which is the monster there on the cover. There are actually about a dozen of them in the oceans at any given time, and they live in a sort of group in one particular area. And every once in a few centuries, they move to a new place. They live a very long time, you see," I explained. "The book traces where they've inhabited and how it has affected the Muggles, since they tend to destroy ships and such."

"Ah," Harry nodded, frowning at the cover before replacing it behind his head. "You find the oddest things to read about. What are you reading now?" he asked, pulling the book I held out of my lap and turning to the front cover, his thumb holding my page. "_Dragons of Europe_," he read aloud. "You aren't turning into Hagrid, are you? We don't need another Norbert."

"Merlin. Of course not. If I never see another dragon again, it wouldn't bother me a bit. But if I do, I'll know what sort of dragon is about to eat me," I joked, and Harry rolled his eyes and grinned. I took my book back, and Harry's eyes slid closed to resume his nap, and for a few more minutes, our day remained perfectly peaceful.

"Hey Malfoy!" Weasely called from across the courtyard, coming toward us, flanked by Finnegan and Thomas.

"Bloody hell," Harry muttered under his breath as he sat up to watch the redhead's progress toward us.

"Read this, Potter," Weasely said when he reached us, thrusting a copy of the Daily Prophet into his hands.

Harry glanced up at the other boys then skimmed a bit of the article Weasely had the paper folded to. "Why should I care about this?" he asked, crumpling the newspaper.

"I just thought you should be reminded what kind of scum you hang around with," Weasely sneered, and I winced when Harry came to his feet at once. "Your uncle may not be in Azkaban yet, but everyone knows what he is…and what you are," he added, glaring at me.

"_You_ do not know Draco," Harry said venomously, shoving the Daily Prophet back into Weasely's chest. "And you don't know me, either. So you can just fuck off and leave us alone."

Weasely was the first to draw his wand, brandishing it in Harry's face. "Watch your mouth, Potter," he snarled.

"Do you really think you're any match for me?" Harry laughed derisively, not even reaching for his wand, but Finnegan and Thomas both had theirs out now. I didn't see him move, but Harry was the first to fire a spell, knocking Thomas on his arse with a jet of orange light. I had no idea what spell he'd used, but Thomas didn't look like he was getting up anytime soon. I slowly got to my feet, trying not to draw attention to myself or distract Harry as the boys were dueling furiously. I raised my wand, bringing up a shield around Harry, careful that it would allow his spells through but not Weasely's or Finnegan's. I was concentrating, strengthening it, and Harry sent Finnegan toppling over with what looked like a Body Bind.

And then, "OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!" which was followed by a loud BANG, and pain consumed my body. My vision went black and my limbs crushed in on themselves, and when I could see again, I was so small and frightened. _Harry_, I thought, but I didn't know what to do, so I pressed myself closer to the ground and tried to cry out for him, but the sound I made wasn't mine. I couldn't breathe. I wasn't me. _Harry_, I thought, and I could hear his voice. I knew he was close. I could smell his rage. Where was he? Why couldn't I find him?

And then the pain returned, just as blinding as the first time, stretching me back out into my body. I gasped for breath, fingers digging into the grass for purchase in the world as I looked for Harry, needing him so desperately that I could feel the keening animal noise from before still in my chest, as if I wasn't quite human again yet. Then I found him, standing a few yards away, flushed and shaking with rage, his wand at the throat of a man that I didn't matter.

"Harry," I cried, and I knew that it was a broken, pitiful sound. But Harry ran to me right away, falling to his knees as he reached me and crushing me in a hug. My body was still shaking, but I felt such incredible relief with Harry close. There were others around, maybe yelling, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I leaned into Harry's warmth and safety, and let consciousness slip away.

**(Jeez, sorry that took so long. But at least you get two chapters at once this time. I had chapter nine done for a little while, but it was just so plain that I didn't want to post I alone. And this chapter took me a little while to get out, for some reason. So I'm sorry for the wait. Review and tell me how I'm doing so far!...Pretty please with cherries!)**


	11. Some Family

_Chapter Eleven: Some Family_

**(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)**

"He should be fired!" I yelled, so angry that I could barely control myself.

"Be that as it may, you had no right to hold your wand to the throat of a _teacher_, Harry Potter. To threaten his life! Professor Moody believed young Mr. Malfoy was attacking you…" McGonagall said tightly.

"And that _excuses_ it? Is he not going to be punished _at all_? He's allowed to prance around the castle turning students into ferrets as he pleases?" I demanded furiously.

"Now that Professor Moody is aware of the rules—"

_"If it had been me, he would be gone!"_ I cried, and McGonagall blinked in stunned silence. "If that evil codger had transformed _me_ into a bloody _ferret_, you _know_ that he wouldn't be spending another night in the castle."

"Mr. Potter, you don't have to convince me of anything. He should be fired. But we need a teacher, and he must stay, at least for this year. You're lucky you won't be punished for your actions today, but that is only if you apologize to Professor Moody," McGonagall said steadily.

"If he apologizes to Draco…I'll think about it," I replied coldly, and McGonagall just sighed tiredly and walked away. I sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of Draco's bed, and was ashamed of myself when I saw that I had woken him.

"I'm in the hospital wing," he observed quietly, looking around. I nodded, my voice caught in my throat. "It was a ferret that he turned me into, then? I couldn't really tell," he said, his voice still small and distant.

"I'm so sorry, Draco," I burst out, my hands clenched in the sheets and my eyes on the opposite wall. "He just…I didn't have time to block the spell…" I went on, so filled with unappeased anger and shame that I could barely stand speaking to Draco. I hadn't protected him.

"You threatened to kill him?" he asked, and I blinked in surprise. "I couldn't really understand what was going on at the time, but McGonagall said you threatened to kill Moody."

"Yeah," I said, letting out a pent up breath of air and not feeling any relief. "The wand-to-his-throat thing just kind of happened, and I told him to turn you back. He said he thought you were attacking me. You had your wand pointed at my back. I told him you were casting shields around me. He grunted and stood there for another few seconds. And then I told him if he didn't turn you back I was going to kill him. More like screamed it at him, actually. And then he turned you back."

"You're blaming yourself," he said, and I felt his hand on my shoulder. I managed to look at him and his sad little smile brought the same rush of helpless affection that it always did. "You did all that you possible could. You always do. It wasn't your fault." And somehow, having him say it, to know he believed that, made the tightness in my chest relax to nearly comfortable.

"I know," I replied, reaching out and ruffling his hair, and his smile grew a bit. "I'll just be insufferable for a few days until I feel better. Did it hurt you?" I asked.

"No," he lied. "What happened to Weasely and the others?" he asked, partially out of curiosity but mostly to change the subject a bit. I let him.

"Oh, they've got detention this weekend. I do, too. For fighting, you know. Like the bloody duel was my fault," I complained. "We'll probably be shining trophies until midnight or something just as boring. But we could have taken them if no one had interfered."

"I need to practice that shield. I could tell it was still blocking a couple of your spells, as well as theirs. It's tricky, shielding someone else," Draco said, frowning thoughtfully.

"We can work on it tonight after Madam Pomphry releases you. She just wanted to check you over once you woke up, but her diagnostic spells while you were sleeping told her that you were fine, only unconscious," I told him, and he nodded.

"I feel alright," he shrugged. "Will you go find her so I can get out of here?" he requested and I grinned, going to find the medi-witch. She declared him healthy and let us go, and after we'd found Hermione and Luna and they had expressed their outrage at what had happened, we spent the rest of our Saturday out on the grounds perfecting Draco's shields and working on a couple of the new spells I'd learned over the summer. All things considered, the remainder of our day was good.

The same couldn't be said for the remainder of our week. Moody apologized to Draco through his teeth with McGonagall staring him down, and I apologized to Moody in the same fashion directly following. And in his class the next day, he tortured a very large spider and killed it in front of the class using the three Unforgivable Curses. Neville nearly had a nervous breakdown in the middle of class, and I was so angry that I couldn't speak when Moody asked me for the final curse, the Avada Kedavra, and it had been Hermione that had answered him, even though she hadn't been asked.

Neville was the first out of the classroom when the bell rang. "His _parents_, Harry," Draco hissed, and it was almost a whine, full of sympathy.

"I know, come on," I said, jogging to catch up with Neville and then coming to a halt when we found him standing in an alcove off the hallway staring at a bit of stone wall with the same horrified expression he'd worn when Moody had cast the Cruciatus on the spider.

"Hey, Neville…you alright?" I asked gently, trying to channel the way I spoke to Draco when he had nightmares.

"Oh, yeah. Great lesson," he replied, his voice higher than usual and his smile all wrong. "What do you think is for dinner? Oh, hi Hermione," he said, and I looked over my shoulder to find her standing there, looking concerned. "Great dinner. I wonder what's for lesson," he said, looking straight through us.

"Neville, I'm sorry," Draco said abruptly, and I looked at him in surprise. His gray eyes were wide and full of emotion, and his body was tensed. And then I realized that Neville was looking at him, too, and not through him. "I…I mean…I'm sorry…" he paused, taking a deep breath, and then in a rush he said, "It was my aunt and I'm sorry."

Neville stared at Draco for a long silent moment, and then, slowly, he relaxed and nodded. "Me too," he said with a shaky sigh. "Let's go to dinner," he said then, sounding mostly like himself again. Hermione looked baffled, but knew better than to ask what the hell had just happened while we were still in front of Neville. When we reached the Great Hall, instead of sitting with Weasely, Neville sat down beside Draco at the Gryffindor table. I tried not to smile too much as I took the seat across from the blonde and Hermione sat beside me.

**(AN: Eesh. That was short. But I guess all my chapters are pretty short. Oh well. I've been without internet for a little while, so sorry for the wait. And I may not have mentioned it, but I just kind of skim over my chapters before I post them, so please forgive any mistakes I miss. And please review! I really do love reviews!)**

**(AN2: Story recommendation if you're interested: What Goes Around, by HarleyD. I just read what she's got so far in one sitting, and it's still in progress. Her Harry kills my soul a little bit, but I do adore her Draco, who is in serious need of hugs. I highly recommend you go check it out.)**


	12. New Arrivals

_Chapter Twelve: New Arrivals_

**(This Chapter is from the point of view of Draco Malfoy)**

The next couple of months flew by, in a rush of work piled on work. Binns had us writing weekly essays on the freakishly boring Goblin wars, and Flitwick had assigned three extra books that we had to read about Summoning Charms. Snape had us working on Antidotes, and I was very thankful for how well Harry and I were both doing in potions, since Snape had threatened to poison one of us to see if our antidote worked.

"Hey, what do you think all that is?" Harry asked, and I looked up from the book I was trying to read while walking to see a large group of people crowded around in the entrance hall. I could see that there was a sign, but I was too short to read it. Harry made a frustrated noise and hopped a couple of times, trying to read it. Hermione made an attempt to worm her way into the crowd, without much success.

"Did something happen? Have they seen a Crumplehorned Snorkak?" Luna asked, appearing behind us.

"We don't know, but I doubt it," Hermione said with a sigh, her hands on her hips.

"Hey, Luna, you're pretty small. Come on, let's see if we can levitate her. Just a bit," Harry suggested, pulling out his wand. "It should be no problem for all three of us. Okay?" he asked Luna, who smiled and sort of nodded. Hermione and I took out our wands. "Ready, Luna?" he asked, and she nodded again. "On three. One, two, three," Harry counted. "Windgardium Leviosa," we incanted together, and Luna rose up easily until she was about two feet off the ground.

"What is it? Can you see?" Harry asked her.

"It's a sign," she said dreamily.

"Yes, but what does it say?" Hermione asked.

"_Triwizard Tournament_," Luna read. "Oh how exciting."

"Does it say anything else?" I asked, grinning in amusement.

"Yes," Luna replied.

"Well read it to us, Luna," Hermione said exasperatedly.

"_The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at six o'clock on Friday the thirtieth of October. Lessons will end half an hour early_," she read. I had potions last on Friday, and that meant that Snape wouldn't have time to poison one of us, but I knew better to interrupt Luna while she still had her train of thought. _"Students will return their bags to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast,"_ Luna finished, and we lowered her back to the ground.

"We'll get to miss half of potions," Harry said happily as we skirted around the group of people and entered the Great Hall.

"How do you think they'll be getting here?" I wondered aloud as we took our seats at the Gryffindor table and Luna wandered off to sit with the other Ravenclaws with a dreamy wave back at us. We spent most of lunch, as well as the next week until Friday, talking about the other schools and the tournament.

Despite all of the rumors and wild guesses about how the delegations from the other schools would be arriving at Hogwarts, everyone was surprised on Friday. For some reason, both schools brought single-sex delegations; the boys from Durmstrang arrived in a sailing ship that emerged from beneath the surface of the lake, and the girls from Beauxbatons came sweeping down out of the sky in a carriage pulled by massive white horses.

Once the guests had been escorted into the Great Hall, the Durmstrang students chose a place at the Slytherin table, and the students from Beauxbatons sat with the Ravenclaws. I was a little disappointed, curious about the other schools, but not nearly so much as Weasely, who spent most of Dumbledore's welcoming speech staring at the Beauxbatons girls, switching to Viktor Krum at odd intervals. Harry laughed at him, but Weasely was too enthralled to notice.

Apparently, Dumbledore had finished speaking, since the table was suddenly laden with food. There were all the usual things like steak and kidney pie and black pudding, but there were also several dishes that I realized at once were meant for the guests.

"Bouillabaisse," I said in surprised pleasure as I spooned some onto my dish. "It's French," I told Harry, who looked confused. "And I think this is goulash," I added, indicating a dish full of squarish pieces of beef and red peppers in thick gravy. I laughed when Harry poked at it experimentally with the serving utensil before abandoning it for roast chicken and a baked potato.

"That looks a little too interesting for me, mate," Harry said, and Hermione laughed from Harry's other side and a rolled her eyes at us as she served herself a bit of both odd dishes.

Then, a voice from behind us said, "Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" I turned around and found myself blinking up at one of the Beauxbatons students. A long sheet of silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth. My eyes narrowed, recognizing at once that she wasn't normal. Not _human_, at least not completely.

"Did you want any more of it, Hermione?" Harry asked, and she shook her head. "We're done with it. Go ahead," he said, pulling it into her reach.

She nodded and picked up the dish, carrying it carefully back to the Ravenclaw table. I frowned at her back before turning back around. "Was there something off about her?" I asked Harry, who shrugged. She was something else, and I couldn't put my finger on it. And, even more strangely, something about me _recognized_ something about her.

"A Veela!" Weasely was exclaiming from down the table a bit, and I realized all at once that he was right.

"How stupid can he be?" Hermione commented, and I shook my head.

"I think Weasely is right for once. Sort of, anyway. That girl definitely has veela blood, and recent, at that. I would guess it was a grandparent," I said, turning around to look at her again.

"How strange," Harry said with interest, turning to look at her as well. "Aren't Veelas supposed to drive guys crazy?" he asked curiously.

"Well look around," I said. Not a few heads had turned to watch the blonde girl return to her table. But I found Harry's remark odd; he didn't seem to think anything of her. I wasn't surprised that I hadn't, marking it to the apparent truth in the tale that my great grandmother had been a Veela. Uncle Silas had mentioned it once, talking about my mother in passing to another Death Eater. I could remember every single word I'd heard about my parents, and the ones that weren't full of scorn from the speaker stood out from the rest.

"If you two can stop worrying about that girl for a minute, you'll see who just arrived," Hermione said with an irritated sniff.

"That's Ludo Bagman, he's one of the people organizing it. So the other one must be Barty Crouch. They're probably here to see the start of the Tournament," Harry said. And sure enough, after the desserts, which had included a few odd dishes as well, had been cleared, Dumbledore stood up to speak on the beginning of the Tournament.

"The moment has come," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket, just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" – there was a smattering of polite applause – "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

I frowned, recognizing the name Karkaroff. Did they not know that Igor Karkaroff was a Death Eater? I glanced worriedly at Harry, who was listening to Dumbledore ramble on about the Tournament. By the end of the speech, my full stomach was churning with anxiety and I thought I might literally be on the verge of vomiting.

On the way back up to the dorms, Harry told Hermione and Neville to go ahead and pulled me into a side hallway. "Don't worry about Karkaroff," he said immediately. I opened my mouth, but couldn't decide if I wanted to deny being worried or ask how he'd known what it was that had worried me, so I just sighed. "Dumbledore knows what he is, and will be keeping a very close eye on him. It's part of the reason Moody is here, actually, although I think it would have been saner to have left him in retirement," Harry told me, rolling his eyes.

"Comforting," I said with a little laugh.

"I know. I'm just saying that Igor isn't going to have the chance to murder me in my sleep or anything," he said with a grin.

"He would only have about a one in three chance of finding you if he went looking in your bed in our dorm," I pointed out as we started toward Gryffindor tower.

"You don't have nightmares as often as you used to," Harry said with a smile. I nodded, remembering back in first year when I couldn't go a single night without having Harry wake me from a nightmare and curl up beside me. "Bubotuber," Harry said to the Fat Lady when we reached her portrait, and it swung open to let us into the common room. The twins were standing away from the other students, talking in hushed urgent voices

"Trying to figure out a way over that age lines, guys?" Harry asked them, and they jumped and wheeled around.

"Oh, hey Harry. And of course. You and Draco want to enter?" Fred, or possibly George, asked him with one of his usual frightening jack-o-lantern grins.

"We'll pass. I figure they'll do it again if no one dies. I'll enter when I'm a seventh year, so I'm on even footing with the people I'm competing with," Harry said with a laugh.

"I think you could handle it, mate," whichever twin hadn't spoken the first time said now. Even after four years, I still couldn't tell them apart for the life of me. "I mean, you threatened to kill Mad-Eye Moody just a few weeks ago," he recalled.

"Goodnight, guys," Harry said without commenting further, and we went up to our dormitory.

**(AN: Sorry about the long wait. I completely lost my ability to write for a little while there. I doubt anyone cares, but my fiancé left me, and I'm not quite up to the way I want to write my Harry and Draco. My writing hasn't left me, I don't think. It'll get better, I'm sure, as I get over this. I'll figure it out. Sorry again for the wait.)**


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